Near and Far
by riversong15
Summary: "The farther we get, the closer we are to having what we want." Brallie Two-Shot, post Season 1 finale. Completed.
1. Bring Me Close

*CRASH*

I drop my phone out of my hands and it falls onto my bed when I scramble up, rushing out of my room. I look around the hallway, trying to find the source of the noise when I hear a strangled yell.

"Ahhhg!" A thump follows and I turn towards Brandon's room, the door closed and I make my way to his room, flinching whenever I hear him yell. I throw the door open and he lets out another shout when I see him throw his alarm clock with his left arm at his wall.

"Brandon!" He ignores me, kicks his chair, and picks up a picture frame from his desk. "Brandon, stop!" He throws the frame down on the ground and I step back at glass shatters. I see him put his hand on his desk and shove everything off it, screaming and I lunge at him.

"Stop it!" I pull on his arm and try to stop him but he struggles against me, not looking at me. He forces me off and kicks his piano bench and I hear it slam against the wall. "Brandon, stop this your scaring me!"

He turns towards his piano and I see the uncapped anger spilling from his gaze. He grabs the bottom of the keyboard with his left hand, and his arm muscles flex as he starts to lift it.

"No!" I rip his hand off the piano and hold onto his wrist, trying to get his eyes to connect with mine. His hand shakes and his eyes stay closed, and I look down at his other hand, the one hanging limply next to his side, useless for one reason only.

There's a cast covering it.

I pull him towards the bed and I shove him down, making him sit on the edge, and I place my hands on the sides of his face and force it towards me, his eyes still closed. I wipe the unseen tears from his cheeks and I look down at the broken boy, whose first week back at the house has brought him nothing but misery, from losing the symphony and ability to play, and I can't help thinking _It's all my fault_.

"I'm sorry," I brush back his hair a bit, letting my fingers linger on his skin as I bring it back down to his cheek. "I'm sorry you got hurt. I'm sorry you had to come back, something both of us clearly weren't ready for."

His eyes flutter open and look up at me, and I'm shocked with how they still hold the ferocity from before.

"Are you sure it's something you didn't want? For me to get back to being older brother and son to the people in this house, back to what we now call normal?" He moves my hands away from his face and looks at the mess he made in his room. "I mean, clearly, neither of us thought that I would try to trash my room. And it's not your fault I'm back. It's not your fault I got hurt. So maybe what you're actually sorry about is moving on with Wyatt. Because you know how miserable I am when I see you with him."

I look down at him sadly. "I told you I didn't want to hurt you."

"But you're not worried that I'm going hurt you?" He stands and looks down at me, the anger ebbing but still there. I nod. "Because you don't think I can?"

"I don't think you would."

His nostril flare, "What if I started dating someone else?"

I flinch back and furrow my eyebrows. "I," I stutter, "I don't care." His eyes glare down at mine. "Brandon, I don't care if you move on with somebody else…it's what we need."

"Need? You think we need to deny ourselves our feelings for each other so that a stupid rule saying we can't be together stays unbroken."

"We do if we want to be happy."

"How does this make us happy?" He yells at me.

I step back from him, my hands clenching in fists. "I'm not the one making this hard! It's not my fault that we're like this."

"Like what, fighting?"

"That we're in love." His eyes widen and his mouth opens and closes like he was about to say something and changed his mind. But he wouldn't have been able to say anything because next thing I know, I'm word vomiting. "I'm saying it now because that's the truth. We are in love. Yes I'm with Wyatt, but that doesn't change the fact that right now, what I feel, what we feel is, I don't know, something that I can't even put words to."

I see the intensity in his eyes switch from anger to hopeful, and I can't move under his gaze until he takes a step towards me. I back away from him slowly until my back meets a wall and I feel pinned under his blue eyes as he stands inches away from me. He puts his hands on my arms and trails them up my arm and then back down to my hands, squeezing them and smiling at the goose bumps he left on my skin.

"That's all I need to hear." His face nears mine and I can just feel the electricity charging between our lips, and I know that when they touch it will be like an explosion whose destruction cannot be controlled. And I can picture it in my mind the kind of devastation we will leave in our wake if I let him kiss me, the inevitable rejection he will have to face from me as my common sense slaps me in the face and asks, "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"No." I put my hands on his arms and move him away from me, him easily complying as I feel our two connected hearts break the farther I push him away from me. "I'm…" I start to apologize but I can't force it out when I see the tears form in his eyes. I cover my mouth and run out of the room, my own eyes swimming as I crash into my bed, slamming my door with effect.

I force myself to stay as I hear one final crash, I can just imagine the keyboard lying upside down, and him clutching his hair with one hand as he looks at his right hand, symbolizing every mistake he's made since I came into his life. And I know that as much as he wants to, he will not march in here and demand an explanation, because nothing can be said that hasn't already been heard by him. But I so badly just want him to yell at me just so that I can yell back and show that I care and that he cares enough to just want to show how angry he is at me instead of targeting inanimate objects.

I've never felt this urge, this temptation to just reach out and touch the cord linking me to him, causing a ripple that only he would feel, a sensation that would vertebrate through our bodies, getting stronger as we get closer. And the only solution to this would be to get as far away as possible, hope that I could break this habit, this obsession that is just sucking me down this hole, growing deeper as my feelings for him do.

I know that I can't get far away anytime soon, but getting close is no longer an option, not for us, so the only thing I can do is put things in between us, create obstacles that he continually knocks down because they are insubstantial compared to how much he wants to be with me. And it's like the closer he somehow gets, the less I can throw at him, until he's standing in front of me and the only thing that fits in between our urging wants is the continued response, "No." And it's like a magic spell, because the moment disappears and in its place in an expanse, that one of us will have to cross until we meet again. And I'm tired of this continued cycle of hurt, but it's just a sign that what he said was right. And there's only two ways to end this: turn around and walk away or go to him. And for the first time ever, I'm taking the first step towards him.

My legs are shaking as one foot goes in front of the other in the direction of his room, my fingers fiddling with the hem of my shirt, and I'm biting the inside of my cheek as I reach the doorknob. And then I hear it. A sob that sounds as heart wrenching as the apparent future I have bestowed onto him, and I lean my forehead against the door with my hands pulling my hair away from my face as I turn my head and press my ear against the door, trying to make sure that what I'm hearing is what I think it is. Another loud cry and I'm collapsed on the ground, my knees against my face as my fingers interlace behind my head as I curl up into a ball, as if making myself as small as possible would somehow help me forget that I was the trigger to the nuclear bomb the demolished his life. But it's somehow making its way deep into my core and I just want to run out the door and keep going until the echoes of his cries have faded and I have enough strength to walk through the door and put on a brave face in front of everyone else, no matter how much it may break him. But I'm done breaking him. I want to fix this. _I have to fix this._

My hand reaches up, grabs the knob and pulls myself up, turning the knob in the process, and I push the door open, determined to put myself in the room with him. Before I lose this burst of courage, I close the door behind me and lean my back against it, taking in the sight before me of my true protector lying on his bed facing towards me with his hands covering his face, strangled sounds making my breath stop. I take a deep breath before coming to the side of his bed and sitting on the edge. His left hand shoots out and grabs mine, his face looks haggard as he realizes it's me sitting next to him. Before he moves again, I grab his hand and interlace my fingers with his as I lie next to him, both of us on our sides facing each other. Our faces are back to where they were before, inches away and holding out for that one kiss, that kiss that will lead to so many others. And I touch his lips and he just stares into my eyes, the redness harsh but causing the blue to be emphasized against the contrast of colors, and he moves his forehead to rest on mine, noses barely touching.

"I have no right to be touching you, to be near you, because I do not truly deserve you. You may say otherwise, but if you knew how much it pains me to see you hurt, you would also want to run to the farthest place on Earth and stay there, in fear that I may cause you any more pain and suffering. Trust me, I would have never have come back if I knew that I would put us in this position, a position where we would have no possibility of being together. I would have been able to live off the fantasies in my head where we would be in an apartment, and you could make me breakfast, and I could be falling asleep in your arms, somewhere no one knew us. And it would be all right to think this, because maybe someday I would have come back for you, and you would still love me, and we could just run off into the sunset as cheesy as it sounds."

"As a girl that's never had anything good, to find all of it in one place was a miracle, and I just wanted to leave it all behind before it left me." I cup his face as my lips come a little closer and his lips part slightly as he looks down at mine. "But you would have never left me. Even now, when we play this game of tug-of-war, you don't give up when I have come so close to so many times. And if you would only tug a little more, you would've won a long time ago, except I always had the excuse of somebody else to keep me from letting go. And I realize that distance has never been a problem for us, no matter how you far I may get I can't erase you from my head and heart."

"But we keep lying to each other and never knowing exactly what we want. Except now we do, but it's so impossible and crazy that we don't go for it. But I want to and then I don't, because when I'm near you I feel you, everywhere on the surface of my skin and then deeper as you get closer, and that scares me more than being on my own, because at least I can control how close you are in my dreams and how much you overwhelm my senses. And the reason it was possible for us to be together when I was at Girls United was that we only restricted ourselves to a few minutes before saying good-bye again. I knew that I had somehow still kept you at a distance where I could keep track of how far I would go with you in case this didn't work out and you decided it wasn't worth it anymore. Because I don't think I could live if I knew I gave all of me to you and you would just throw it aside like a toy you got tired of."

"But you've proven yourself, time and time again that you will fight for us, while I just let myself give up. And the fact that I continue to take the easy way out for us by being with Wyatt just proves how despite what I think, you do love me more than I do love you. It's not easy moving on, but it's also hard to imagine a life with you when I know how many people will be wounded in the process."

"But I do love you. And you know I do. But that stopped mattering a long time ago. All you care about is if I want to be with you, if I'm willing to give into this dream you have of us living in some small apartment, with day jobs that barely pay the rent, spending every waking second together. And we're just making it by because we're teenagers, and we won't be going to college because we'll be long gone before we finish high school."

My hand goes down to his chest where his heartbeat is matching mine in its increasing tempo and he slowly moves his hand over mine, that little touch that is like dipping my toe into the pool, testing the waters, seeing if I should go on. And I do. "When I kiss Wyatt, it's like _a kiss_. It feels like two lips are being pressed together. And that's all a kiss really is. Except I can't remember a time where I kissed you and it didn't feel like I was flying, falling, or somehow being suspended in air."

He enjoys that little dig at Wyatt and he finally speaks. "Is that a good thing?"

"I don't know."

"Well, how did you feel?"

"I remember feeling terrified, but maybe it was because we were sneaking around and could be caught at any moment."

"I don't want you to be scared."

"I'm not scared. Not of you. Just what we might do and how that will affect everyone."

"But that's just it Callie, we worry about other people's feelings when the only thing that should matter is how we feel." He exasperates.

This would be the moment I shut him down and tell him that it's not possible for me to just turn off this constant worry over whether I'm doing the right thing or not, that I can't do this to the family. And then the light in his eyes would turn off and he would roll over to his other side and I would be stuck staring at the back of his head while the tension in the room makes it so that I have to leave us at this awful end of the conversation. We'd be right back at the beginning and he'd be forced to go through this without me, something I won't allow.

"I know." He blinks at my agreement. "I just need to be reminded sometimes." I swallow. "There's something else you should remind me of." I bite my lip and he blinks down at them. "How it really felt to kiss you."

He slowly nods his head and put his hand on my cheek, drawing me closer to him like before, and I'm holding my breath as I prepare to jump into this kiss with full force, not holding back. But then his phone rings and he groans as he sits up and looks at his phone, and I find myself looking over his should at the caller ID. He glances at me, as if wondering if he should ignore his mom, and I wish he did because I don't want this moment to be ruined before we even do anything.

"Hey mom. Yeah, I'm fine. Yeah okay, I'll tell Callie. Yeah. Callie is here. No, I think we're the only ones here." He stays silent for a while and stares at me again, looking more disturbed after what she says. "Yeah mom, I'm giving her space. I promise. Have fun with mom tonight. I'll see you later."

He hangs up and puts his phone down, and turns his whole body towards me, begging me with his eyes and expression to not move farther away while every instinct is telling me to. I stand up suddenly and stay next to the side of the bed while he swings his legs over so that he's sitting in front of me. He takes my hands with both of his, even with his cast on his right hand and he pulls me closer so that I'm standing between his legs. "Don't go."

I take a deep breath and move my hands to his shoulders. "I don't want to."

"We don't have to stop. No one will be home for hours."

"I don't want hours Brandon. We both know that we can't make it through this with only a few moments together. It's either forever or not at all. And we both know what we want."

He smiles and moves his hands to my waist and tugs me towards him until his face is almost touching my torso and my fingers are winding around his hair. His hands go under my shirt and his left hand squeezes my side. My legs wrap around his hips and his hands go to my shoulder, pulling down the sleeve of my sweater as his lips ghost over my skin before choosing to press down at the base of my neck. I moan and hold the back of his head close as he moves his lips up to my jaw, and I tilt his head up and look down at him as he looks up through his dark eyelashes.

I grab the hem of my sweater and pull it over my head, throwing it onto the floor and placing his hands on my waist. They wrap around my body and he kisses up the center of my chest from where the bra clasps in the front, his lips going up my throat, and the heat is rising up my body as we come close to kissing. He kisses the corner of my mouth and then places a finger over my lips as I lean in towards him.

"You sure? About everything, about this, about what we will be doing?"

I press my forehead to his. "I can't say no to you again. I don't have enough in me, nor the will to want to. So yes, I'm sure. Now shut up and kiss me."

No sooner do the words leave my lips, his are suddenly on them, and I'm drinking him in, the way he feels, the way he kisses me, how I feel lightheaded after only a few seconds. The contact of his hands on my body, exploring each other's mouths, separating only to pull off his t-shirt, is completely unfamiliar territory for me. But all worries go flying out the window when he mumbles, "I love you," against my lips and I eagerly answer back as he pulls me under him.

He looms over me as he looks down at me, flushed and breathing hard, with a content smile on his face, and I sigh as I reach for his head and brush through his hair.

"Callie there's something I should tell you."

"What?" I say softly.

His eyes leave mine and I have to place my fingers under his chin and bring his gaze back up to mine.

"After the dance, I did something stupid."

"Like what?" His lips part slightly and I can sense him wanting to pull back from me, like he doesn't want to touch me. And then I understand. "Don't tell me Brandon."

"But Callie-"

"I don't care. It doesn't matter. I know you're going to tell me something like you slept with someone and I should know about it because it might come up later, but I don't care. No one else matters at this point. There's only one first time that matters to me and that's my first time with you. With the one person I ever want to be this close to." I reach my hands down to his jeans and unbutton the top button. "So I want you to forget about anyone else you have ever been with and just remember me."

I see his inhibitions leave his face and one agonizing second, later he dips his head down to my neck and he whispers, lips touching the shell of my ear, "Then let's make it something we never forget."

My eyelids flutter as his hands go down to my hips. A small sigh leaves his mouth as we push away the final barriers. We pull each other close, and go the distance.

And we reach the point of no return.

* * *

I would be lying if I said I wasn't broken, that the pieces of my heart were only held together with the knowledge that if I let go for one moment, they would fall away into an abyss, never to be recovered. I always thought that finding love would mend those pieces, cause my heart to be whole for once, but looking down at Brandon, whose lips are kissing my collarbone before making their way down my body, I don't feel fixed. I feel...like I'm floating high above the sky while still sinking further into ground, like it wants to envelop me. Like the pieces I've been keeping together with a steel strong grip have finally separated, except instead of falling, they scatter, as if searching for another piece to join with.

His eyes find mine again as he hovers above me and it feels like he is looking everywhere with his hands that won't stop roaming over me. I reach up and touch Brandon's face as if it will shatter, but the look in his eyes just proves that it's too late. He put everything into what we were doing as if it was the last time, and he probably thought it was. He's not expecting me to stay and that just tears me apart.

Unbeknownst to me, tears had formed in my eyes and Brandon quickly brushed those away with the pad of his thumb, his eyes full of worry. I pull his beautiful face towards me and touch our noses together, keeping my eyes open, taking in every detail of the color of his eyes and the dark lashes framing them. I slowly smile and he in turn kisses my nose before turning over and collapsing next to me, a small space in between our bodies.

"Why are you crying?" He says in a whisper, like the sound of his voice will startle me.

"You don't believe me." I take his casted hand and kiss the tips of his fingers. "You think I'm going to tell you that this can't ever happen again."

"It's crossed my mind." He admits, his chest slowly rising up and down as he breathes deeply, and I watch it, wanting to climb on top of it and feel his heartbeat through my entire body as he enters me slowly. But before I do, I need to say something.

"I feel like I broke you. Like I came at you with a hammer and slowly took you apart."

"You did." I turn my head away from him, the guilt rising in my stomach, and feel him move his left hand over my stomach and pull himself close so that my arm is pressed to his chest. "To be honest though, I'm glad you did. I feel less, well not perfect, because I never was, but more raw. Like you helped strip away the layers that protected me and now I can see who I really am." He kisses my shoulder and I look back at him. He pulls my torso onto its side and now I'm facing him, still holding his right hand to my chest.

"You really were perfect though. And I seriously am not."

"People aren't perfect. We're no exception." I put one hand on his cheek and use the other to hold onto his hip as I come closer. "We're just incomplete." He says raggedly, sensing what I want from him, what he wants from what I can tell with the way his midsection is pressing against me.

I nod my head, agreeing with him, as I gently push him down onto his back and try, as gracefully as I can, to linger above him.

"You complete me." I say as I lower myself onto him, his eyes staying open with mine as he occupies the empty part of me, his own uneven pieces matching with mine, no longer wandering, and we find ourselves finally mending in a way we didn't expect.

My heart didn't need a place to stay. It just needed someone to stay with.

* * *

Author's Note: Thank you for reading this rather long story. Reviews about how this made you feel would be great since this is a little different than my style of writing. It's a little more dramatic and descriptive and I want to know if it's good or full of garbage. Also, this is a two shot, so please stand by for the second part. Again thank you for reading and I'll get that next part to you guys as soon as possible. Have a lovely day.


	2. Never Too Far

Author's Note: It's here. The long awaited second part. I never thought this day would come (I'm sure you didn't either). Please enjoy.

* * *

**Callie P.O.V.**

I don't know how, but we still have an hour before anyone else comes home. I'm lying on the bed stomach down, my head looking off to the side with his chest pressed against my back and his lips placing a kiss at the top of my spine that tingles down to the ends of my toes as his arms wrap around my torso.

"I hate that clock." I say, looking at his bedside table, and he chuckles into my hair. "It's the only thing that could ruin this moment."

"What, you don't like analog?" He jokes and I nudge him gently with my elbow.

"I don't like something telling me that I'll have to get out your bed, put on my clothes, and walk out of the room like this didn't happen."

"But it did." His tone sounds concerned. "We're not going to pretend like we didn't do this."

"Not in the sense that I'm going to tell you that this can't happen again. Because trust me, this will. But I need to sort some things out. Like, for example, my adoption. And Wyatt."

"I'm sorry," he whispers, his words blowing on my ear as he hugs me closer. "I wish this wasn't so complicated."

"Don't be. I dragged us into this mess, I'll get us out." I roll over onto my back and he sits up a little and rests on his elbow. "But yeah, you're right. This is going to hurt a lot of people."

* * *

"We shouldn't be doing this," Brandon says while I sit in his lap on the reclined seat of his car parked near the now empty beach. "Callie I think we should stop."

"No you don't," I murmur as I bring his face up to mine, but as I lean in to capture his lips, he turns his head away and I sigh and lean back. "Brandon, what is it?"

His eyes stay downcast and I'm starting to worry with the way he refuses to look at me. I sit in silence and wait for him to break it, speak first and explain his rejection when he hasn't voiced any regrets in the past month we've been sneaking around.

"I think my mom knows something." He admits. "She warned me about saying anything to you to make you change your mind on the adoption. They don't know that you already did."

"I'm going to tell them." I remind him. "They're going to understand."

"They're going out of their minds trying to find your father so that you can be adopted. And I can tell that you breaking up with Wyatt really shook them. They don't trust us." He rubs my arms now dangling by my sides and then keeps them at my wrists, holding tightly as if not wanting to let go. "And they shouldn't. Look at what we're doing."

"We can't feel guilty for something that isn't even wrong."

"Lying and sneaking around is wrong."

"It's what you wanted."

"All I want is you."

"And the only way to have me is if we do this." I press my hands to his chest, leaving a small space in between our faces, enough so that he can still look at me.

He shakes his head and I finally concede, getting off him and sitting in the passenger seat. "I thought I would be comfortable with this, but I'm fooling myself if I think this hasn't been eating at me for the past month. I'm not saying it's not worth it to be with you."

"I understand." And I do, I really do. "But I don't know if I agree to stay away from you just for our consciences."

"I don't know if I can either."

A smile forms at the corner of my mouth and I take his hand and hold it in both of mine. "Then we don't." I bring his hand up to my face where it stays as I lean in to him, less of a push and more of a prompt for him to come closer, which he does. "Just remember what this all means for us."

The want in my eyes is so strong and when I catch a glimpse of his in the light from the streetlamp, I can see it mirrored back in his gaze. It takes me by surprise when he leans back again.

"Just promise me one thing." He asks.

"Anything."

"Don't stop the adoption. Give them something to be happy about, something you can be happy about. Let yourself have both of us, a family and me. It doesn't have to be either or." He says earnestly, with that look of hope I always found so mislead and only sometimes true when applied to my life, a look I had seen die one too many times on my own face and Jude's.

I think about Stef and Lena, who tell me everyday that they are trying their best to find Robert Quinn, who assure me that I'm not going anywhere, that they won't let me go without a fight, and I shudder to think how easily it was for me to do the opposite, like I almost did with Brandon. And to be honest, I'm relieved to think there won't be another sad face to look at, a rush of regret whenever someone mentions how I am not getting adopted. This could be my moment to have it all.

"Okay." I whisper and he closes the distance and gives me a proper kiss, not the kind where one of us is holding our breath in anticipation for something to happen, for a hand to fly out and wrench us away. It's in that moment I realize this is what it feels like to be normal. We are just a girl and guy sitting in a car, in the moonlight, letting themselves get lost in the way the small touches make us feel connected, emotionally and physically, where kisses don't have to be rushed and halted, our minds fogging up and our thoughts on the other person only.

"Won't it just hurt more when they find out?" I ask when we finally separate. "They won't let us be together, not if I'm your sister."

He squeezes my hand, his mouth set in a line. "I don't think we can stay when they do."

My eyes widen and I back up slightly when I realize the gravity of what he's saying. "You mean run away?"

"In less than two years, we'll be going to college. We can tell them, leave, and they won't be able to do anything about it."

"They?"

"The system, the courts, Stef, Lena, anybody that has told us otherwise. We'll be untouchable."

"We'll break their hearts."

"It won't be forever." He's trying to smile and make me feel better and I can tell his hope is becoming contagious. "They'll forgive us, eventually."

I raise my eyebrows at him. "And you're willing to let them go, your own family?"

"I don't want to," he explains. "But I will do what I have to," he kisses me softly, "to be with you." He nudges my nose with his as I lean in to put myself back in our original position, my legs on either side of his hips and his hands grazing my thighs and traveling to the small of my back. "So, are you in?" He asks.

A strand of hair falls down my face as I shake my head up and down and he tucks it back behind my ear. "I've always thought of myself as a flight risk, only taking what I needed to survive. I never thought I would be taking someone with me."

* * *

**A Year and a Half Later**

* * *

I knock softly on the door and he's there in an instant, pulling me into his room, closing the door silently. He turns to me and takes my hand, a nervous smile on his face that he tries to make seem more confident. "You ready?" He asks, hands grasping mine and I don't even hesitate as I nod my head in response. There's been too much anticipation for the last 24 hours for me not to be excited that we're finally doing this. And like over a year ago, my bags are packed and slung over my shoulders and I can see his large duffel sitting on the floor next to hit feet. Together we turn off our phones and tuck them at the bottom of our bags, to make the temptation to use them lessen.

We doubt anyone will hear us turn on the car and pull out of the driveway, but my hands stay clasped until we're at least an hour away, and there's still hours before anyone wakes up and notices we're gone. He visibly relaxes when he sees me loosen up and takes my hand for a brief moment, interlacing the fingers as we keep going down the highway.

"There." I point to a gas station and we pull in. I rush inside and grab as many snacks as I can buy, hurrying back to the car where he waits drumming his fingers.

"What time is it?" I ask, closing the passenger door and ripping open a bag of chips as we drive away.

"Four." He glances at my backpack at my feet and then looks back at the road. "We still have a few hours until they find the note I left."

"What did you write?"

"The truth."

* * *

Dear Moms, Marianna, Jesus, and Jude,

I hope you're able to read this with a level head to be fully able to understand what I need to tell you. And that is that I love you. We love you, Callie and I. And we don't want to leave you guys without saying that we can't pay you back for everything you guys have given us, whether it is your love or your support and believing in us as you've watched us grow up for as long as we've known you all. You guys have been the greatest family that either of us could ask for, and we can't thank you enough for letting Callie and Jude into our home. For if she were never sent here, I would have never met her, never gone halfway across town to help her get Jude, and never be able to find someone that I will love for the rest of my life.

We want you to know that we will be fine. More than fine really. We'll be able to be together, forever, and that's all anyone really wants. It's what you wanted Mom, to be with that one person for the rest of your life.

And I know you think that we're not going to last, that we will regret leaving our family to pursue a ridiculous future, and we will have no one to turn to when this all blows up in our faces. But you are wrong. We are so sure about how we feel that we are risking more than your disapproval for a life together. And we didn't just decide to leave. We knew that if we were going to do this, we would do it right. We didn't tell you guys, but we got into the same college, same full ride, and for the next four years, we're going to be okay, living wise. We have no doubt that we can get jobs, no doubt that we can move in together and have that apartment that we've wanted since we were 16. We hope that when we finally finish the next four years of our lives, you will be there with us.

God, I'm trying not to cry while writing this, but it's hard, because I'm accepting the fact that I'm not going to see you guys for a while. But we can only hope we don't have to wait too long before we can tell one of you where to find us. Or maybe we'll just show up at your doorstep, wanting to surprise you.

Either way, we will see you again. We promise.

Love, Brandon and Callie

* * *

**Two Months Later**

* * *

"Here, help me carry this over there." Brandon picks up the large blue velvet ottoman I walk over from across the empty room and pick up the other side. We set it in the middle of the room, and when he puts it down, I lie on top on my back, smiling up at him.

"Well, it's no love seat, but at least it's big." He laughs and sits on the edge.

"Yeah, there's room for the two of us." I prop myself on my elbows and he brushes a strand of hair that escaped from my messy bun at the top of my head. His hand stays on my face and then he presses his lips against mine. I lay my head back onto the seat as he climbs over my body and wrap my legs around his waist as my hands go up his back, the hem of his shirt sliding up.

It's been too long since I felt his body pressed against mine, too many nights spent in his car and motels as we took the road trip of our lives. Back home, everywhere we went, it felt too open, too vulnerable, as if Stef and Lena had eyes and ears everywhere we went. But as we took advantage of the newfound freedom we gave ourselves, the guilt of what we did soon caught up to us.

During the day, I could kiss him like we were behind the school during free period, hands sneaking under clothes, and I had to remind us both that we were in public, a fact that only made us more eager to act on our urges. But at night, when we made our bed the room we paid for, it was far from the same as spending a forbidden night in the twin bed in Brandon's room. The unfamiliarity of our surroundings and the way we would never unpack our bags made everything feel temporary. In order for this to feel right, we needed someplace permanent. Otherwise, we were running towards nothing but an idea.

This apartment was more than an idea though. It was solid, permanent, and ours. So before he could pull away and tell me to help him unpack, I pull down the waistband of my shorts, take one of his hands, and place it under the fabric, where the sensation of his touch makes me bite my lip until he takes his fingers away.

"Now?" Brandon asks with one hand holding him up as the other goes under the t-shirt I borrowed from him and reaches up to the bra I was wearing.

"I think we brought the ottoman in first for a reason."

"But we have to unpack." He fake complains as he kisses my neck.

"We can unpack later." I feel him grin cheekily against my skin. "And what better way to celebrate our new apartment?"

He connects his forehead to mine, our deep breathing matching each other as hands continue to wander over clothing and skin, a heat rising up my cheeks although I have nothing to be nervous about. I mean, this is Brandon, the only person who can make my skin feel like satin with the way he caresses it, the only person I have left right now.

The wind from the AC raises goosebumps on my skin, but underneath the surface is a fire warming me up from my core, as if it's reacting to the way he presses his lips to mine so passionately. "You're beautiful." He breathes out. "I love you."

"Never stop saying that."

"I won't." He connects our lips and I sigh.

"Just." He takes off his shirt. "Don't." My lips kiss his chest and then back up to his mouth. "Stop."

* * *

**Two Years Later**

* * *

The bed creaks slightly as Brandon climbs out and I groan when he turns on the lights. "Don't leave yet." I reach out for his body, lying on my stomach with the dark blue covers covering my bareback.

"I have to get to class." He reaches down next to the bed and pulls his jeans on. I tug one of the belt loops towards me and make him sit on the edge of the bed before I sit up and wrap my arms around his torso, the warm skin of his back pressed against my chest.

"Did you enjoy your birthday?" I caress into his ear.

"More than you could possibly imagine."

"Oh, I think I can imagine." My lips graze the back of his neck and he cranes his neck to look over his shoulder at me. "You're happy right?"

He smiles as he takes one of my hands and kisses it softly. "Absolutely. How could I not be?"

I rest my chin on his shoulder. "Maybe because you're 20 years old and celebrating it with just me and some friends."

He nods, understanding what I'm insinuating, and rubs my arms. "I miss them too Callie. But we agreed to wait until the summer."

"I know, I know. And I'm still good with that plan." I pause for a moment. "But what if we don't have the chance to?"

"What do you mean?"

"I just have a feeling that something is going to happen." He turns towards me and rests his forehead on mine, calming me down.

"We're safe, Callie. I know it was scary the first year, us being paranoid, but we can't live in fear that someone will find us."

"Not just someone. Stef and Lena." I pointed out.

"It's been two years Callie. At this point, they wouldn't still be looking. They would be waiting for us to come and find them." His hands move up my back, fingers winding into my hair and I clasp my hands together behind his neck. "Don't worry about it anymore, Callie."

I nodded slowly. "Okay." He kissed me quickly before standing up and grabbing a button up from the closet.

"I have to be at a lecture until three today. You want to meet up for lunch before I go to my thing?"

I hesitate before answering back, "Sure." I lie back down and Brandon walks over and places his hands on either side of me, his face inches from mine. Without thinking I cup his face and kiss him hard, a desperate way of asking him not to go. "I just want to stay in here with you." I murmur against his lips.

He nods in agreement, but leans his head away from me. "We have lives now, Callie. No more hiding." He disconnects my hands from his body. "I love you." He yells out the bedroom door.

"Love you too." I answer back. The front door slams shut a minute later and only then do I drag myself out of bed and put some clothes on.

Taking out my phone, I look one more time at the number on my recent call list before listening to the voicemail, almost wanting to cry at the voice coming out of the phone, a voice I have never heard but is so familiar to me.

"Callie, it's me, Jude." The low gravel sounded so much like Donald's it made my head spin. "Wow, hearing you speak, even in a voice mail message, it's surreal. Then again, you haven't heard me speak since it was cracking every other syllable, ha ha ha..."

I shut the phone off and sit on the ottoman, my knee hopping up and down from the combination of anxiety and anticipation running through me. Then I stand up, take my keys, and walk out of the apartment.

* * *

I should have told Brandon. I shouldn't be going on my own to see them, not when I can't know what they'll say.

It's like Donald all over again. I went to his apartment to make sure he wouldn't confuse Jude when he saw him. Now I'm protecting Brandon from his own mothers.

"No more hiding." He said. And I know he's right, we deserve to live our lives without worrying what people will think of us. But that doesn't make me any less terrified about what I'm doing.

"Callie?"

I turn slowly towards the voice and come face to face with an older, short-haired, slightly shocked version of Lena, whose clasping hands with a woman whose age only shows through the way her eyes crinkle when her mouth forms the still same smile of Stef.

Without the usual warning, they wrap me in a Mama Sandwich, crushing me within their tight embrace, causing me to sigh with both relief and lack of room to breath. I almost wanted to tell them to loosen up, but I could tell how much they needed this, this feeling that I can't escape from grasp again, and I deserved the pain their love was giving me.

In the middle of the Washington Square Arch, they got to reclaim one lost sheep that wandered away from the rest of the flock.

* * *

"Where's Brandon?" Stef asks me as we sit on a bench, a favorite people watching spot.

I fiddled with the hem of my shorts as I looked at the other people in the park. "School." I turn back her quickly. "I didn't tell him about the phone call."

"Oh." She sighs, clearly disappointed not to see the son that carefully planned out the way to leave her behind two years ago but still wanted to smother with kisses the moment she saw him. "He probably wouldn't want to see us."

"No Stef, that's not it." Fiddling with the ring on my finger, I try to reassure her. "We were going to visit this summer. We thought it would be better if we came to you than you guys finding us. Guess that plan had some problems," glancing between the two of them. "To be honest, we thought you guys had stopped looking a long time ago."

"You're talking about a cop and a school principal. We don't give up on people, it's in our job description." Lena jokes, easing my nerves slightly.

"How did you guys find us?" I ask, the question that's been shouted in my head for two days, since I got the phone call from Jude.

"'Young Piano Student at NYU Wins Statewide Competition.' Marianna caught the headline while searching your names on the internet. She did it every month, thought it would be the way to find you. 'You can find anything on the internet, especially missing people', she claimed. Jesus owed her 100 dollars."

I smiled, remembering the late nights of practicing, the coaxing it would take to make him come to bed, the subsequent performance he gave that brought everybody off their seats. "I wish you guys were there to hear it. It was beautiful."

"We found a YouTube video. He sounded different, much more mature. I thought he was amazing before, but those professors really got him to another level." There was a look on her face that could only be described as motherly pride, a look I recognized when she looked at all of her kids, myself included.

"Callie." Lena says, "Why didn't you tell Brandon about the phone call? We told you, we wouldn't be mad."

"Actually, Jude said you wouldn't be mad." I say while brushing back a stray hair from my braid, interlacing my fingers in my lap and staring down at my hands. "It was hard for both of us in the beginning. We were scared and worried that you would show up one day, mad and force us to finally face what we had done. But Brandon took the separation harder. When I lived with you guys, I got used to having mothers to take care of me, having more than one person to depend on. But when we left, I somehow got back into that mindset that all I would need was your son, that nothing mattered except that we were together. And I was happy. But he grew up with three parents and two siblings. He didn't think it would be so difficult to live this way, having one person to turn to. He even stopped writing songs about me and started making them about you guys. That piece he played at the competition was a love story, but it wasn't ours. It was yours." I pressed my palm to my eyes as the tears started to slowly trickle down my face.

"Amazing how it's what led you guys back to us," I say as I take their hands and clasp them tightly while they smile gently and I squeeze their fingers. "He never wanted this to be forever, but it was his idea to run, and he's scared that you'll never forgive him. And that's why I didn't tell him." I look at them through wet eyelashes, "I came alone because I need you to give us a chance. As much as he loves me, and I him, we need our family. And I think we're ready to come back. If you'll have us back." I trail off.

They glance at each other and I see they have both noticed the ring on my fourth finger, holding up the band to see the tiny lettering.

"Is this what I think it is?" Stef breathes out, and I have to search her face to figure out if she's excited or nervous with the way she stares at me, but it's mostly incredulous. "Did you two-"

"No, no, of course not. It's not a wedding ring or an engagement ring. We're too young and we couldn't - wouldn't do it without you guys to see it." I trace the small phrase etched onto the rose gold band. "'Share my love and you'll never run out'," I speak the words out loud, "Brandon's ring says 'No matter how far, I'll be around'."

"What is it from?" Lena asks, another memory popping into my head with a smile that follows.

The first time I heard it was when it was whispered in my ear on my seventeenth birthday, not long after the adoption was finalized, the intimacy of it in the way he sang it so softly, as if the words themselves could travel under the bedroom door. Bringing myself back to the present day, I explain, "It's a lyric from one of Brandon's songs. A friend joked that that would be a cool tattoo, and fortunately we decided on rings. It became a reminder that we weren't alone and people are never far from the ones they love as long as they still have the love in their hearts for them."

Lena wipes her face as the first tear escapes and she leans against Stef who keeps one hand on mine while grasping Lena's, their wedding bands still gleaming after four years of marriage. "And you still are in our hearts. We never gave up because we always felt like we were so close to seeing you again. And that kind of hope never dies."

This time I initiate the hug and they wrap me up, this time more gently and lovingly. Instead of tears flowing down my face like I expected there to be, I felt like the Grinch when his heart grew bigger, yet there wasn't enough room for these two amazing women that took me in when I was at my lowest.

I know I had to go to the extremes for them to understand what Brandon meant to me, that if I had told them I loved their son when it seemed that choice could get me sent away, I would only be left feeling powerless against those that tried to tell me how I would feel. But we're here now, clinging to each other, our hearts always meant to reunite after so much heartache.

There was only one thing missing.

* * *

**Brandon P.O.V.**

I hear the keys in the door minutes after I get back the apartment and start boiling the water, ready to make spaghetti in the hour I had between classes. The door opens up and I hear more that one pair of footsteps enter the living room.

"Brandon," Callie shouts. "Can you come here?"

"Sure," I answer, "Where did you go earlier, I thought you would still be -"

My mouths stops forming words when my jaw drops as I see who's standing next to the old otto man. It's a baffling scene of Callie smiling like it's Christmas and my mothers looking like they've already gone through the wringer. My initial reaction is to grab Callie's hand and run in the opposite direction, but she's next to me now and leaning towards me with the same excitement we shared when we found this apartment online.

"Callie, what's -" her hands gently press on my chest as she kisses me, her lips slightly parted, distracting me for a second before she pulls away.

"I said you shouldn't have spent your birthday with just me. And I may be a day late but I want to make it up to you."

Eyes widened, I finally look Stef in the eye while holding Callie closer, her gaze still affixed on my face, as if she had to watch me instead of the two women standing still by the door.

"Did you bring them here?" It doesn't shock me with how betrayed I sound, because I don't know if I wanted to be surprised like this. I've been stalling for two years to have this conversation and this ambush was making me seriously pissed.

"They found us, B." She says quietly. "I got a call two days ago saying they wanted to see us." My breath hitches at the confession. "I didn't tell you because I wanted to protect you." She pleads.

And with that, I let go of the dam I built to stop the guilt from taking over me, because nothing makes me feel weaker than Callie being the one I have to lean on. It's not an issue of feeling like I need to be her protector, but I can't be her Jude. I need to share the problems we have, not give her more that she can take.

But before the feelings I've been holding back bring her down with me, a hand reaches out to my face and connects to the skin of my cheek, and I get a good look at my mother with the biggest smile on her face.

I can only remember Callie's face being the closest to mine as we were pressed in a hug that filled me up where I was left empty. Her head was against my chest as we all breathed together, healing the broken ties we left behind. And as we all took the load of emotions off each other, Lena smiled at me before taking Stef's hand and kissing her fingertips, while I do the same with Callie, my own words running through my mind as our fingers interlace and the rings make the line of my second song for Callie.

Share my love, and you'll never run out

No matter how far, I'll be around

I'll run with you, and need nothing else

Leave me behind, I won't be myself

Because without you with me, I am not whole

Take part of me, I cannot withhold

My heart is where I can only call home

As long as you have it, I won't be alone

* * *

Second Author's Note: Quick life update. Currently doing something that will help further the career I want in life, so writing has been on the back burner. The poem at the end is entirely my own, I wrote it at two in the morning in the darkness of my room. If it somehow resembles something else you've seen, you can take my word that I didn't copy it. I would love to know if the wait was worth it, so please communicate your thoughts via the internet. Thank you for your patience, have a wonderful day (or night in my case). Love you all.

\- riversong15


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